Man admits voting for Obama in late wife's name

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A man said Wednesday that he voted in his
late wife's name in November to fulfill her dying wish to cast a
ballot for Barack Obama.

Stephen Wroblewski, 64, of Milwaukee, said he plans to plead
guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to
obtain an absentee ballot.

His wife, Jacqueline Wroblewski, was a veteran Democratic
activist and former poll worker who died of lung cancer in August.
Her husband of 25 years said he cast an absentee ballot in her name
and also voted under his own name.

"She was such a Democrat and saw there was finally going to be a
new administration. She really wanted to live long enough to vote,"
Wroblewski said Wednesday in a phone interview. "But I still don't
know why I did it. A grief counselor told me it was just a matter
of keeping her close to me and not letting go."

The absentee ballot was not counted. A volunteer poll worker who
was processing absentee ballots in Milwaukee the night of the
election happened to be a family friend.

"Out of 35,000 ballots, she pulls that one and blurts out that
she knew my wife and that she was dead," Wroblewski said.

He added that his wife would have been appalled about what he
did because she "was a stickler for the rules."

Wroblewski was charged last month; a copy of the complaint was
released Wednesday. He is set to appear in court next month.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison,
but Assistant Milwaukee County District Attorney Bruce Landgraf
said Wroblewski is unlikely to face jail time given his lack of a
criminal record.

Prosecutors previously declined to charge a Milwaukee woman who
turned herself in on Election Day after casting two absentee
ballots, but Landgraf said this case was different. He said
Wroblewski's acts "were designed to have the effect of voting twice
in the election," and that he turned himself in only after learning
that his wife's ballot was being challenged.

Wroblewski's attorney, Jim Blask, said he had advised his client
to take the case to trial. Jurors would have been sympathetic to
Wroblewski, who was grieving and not thinking clearly at the time,
he said.

"Anyone who has ever been married realizes that sometimes you do
things you otherwise wouldn't do because she's your wife," Blask
said. "You might sign her checks or make purchases on her behalf.
That's how Stephen felt toward Jackie."

But Wroblewski said he simply wants to end the embarrassing
episode. He said he spent 12 hours in jail after he was booked on
the charge last month and worries about potentially going back.

"I just wish they'd drop this whole thing," said Wroblewski, a
retired sales representative for Time Warner. "The vote didn't even
count."

Six people have been charged with election-related crimes in
Milwaukee County stemming from the presidential election. Dozens of
other cases remain under investigation.

A Government Accountability Board survey of district attorneys
released last week showed that only two other election cases were
known to have been filed statewide.